Man Who Was Shot In Front Of His Kids Listed In Critical Condition

Two teens, each of them not 130 pounds, walked down Troy Street toward 47th and stopped next to a van where a man was talking through the window to his girlfriend and kids.

The weather was beautiful and they talked of going to the park. Up the street, a few kids were out front with their parents and grandparents.

Photo Credit: Abel Uribe / Chicago Tribune

One of the teens, a boy in dark gray and a black hat, asked the man what he was “about,” or what gang he belonged to, according to police and several witnesses.

“I’m with my kids,” the man told him.

The teen turned to the other and said, “Shoot that n—–, shoot that n—–.”

“I’m with my kids,” the man repeated. His girlfriend made the same plea: “He’s with his kids.”

But the other teen, who looked the younger of the two, raised a pistol and shot the man in the forehead. The man fell to the ground and the teen stood over him and fired two more times, police and witnesses said.

Her aunt rushed the kids inside, where she tried to calm the 2-year-old, who remained hysterical nearly an hour after the shooting Thursday afternoon in the 4600 block of South Troy Street in the Brighton Park neighborhood.

In the home, a kids cartoon was on TV, loud enough to be heard outside.

A neighbor walked up the block to see what happened. He moved the man’s head to see if he was responsive, then stepped back, made the sign of the cross and walked back home. His girlfriend asked him to do something and he shook his head.

The man on the ground appeared dead, but paramedics rushed him to Mount Sinai Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition with wounds to the head, shoulder and back, according to police.

No one was reported in custody.

Neighbors who talked to the Tribune asked that their names not be used because of the fear of living in the neighborhood. They did not want to draw attention to themselves.

Chicago police stand at the scene where a 25-year-old man was shot in the 4600 block of S. Troy in the Brighton Park neighborhood on June 8, 2017.

All of them described the erosion of a sense of community over the years as their neighborhood has grown more violent. The violence has become more frequent and intense as a gang conflict from neighboring Back of the Yards grew into Brighton Park and gangs have used rifles, wounding dozens over the last year.

“Right now, everybody is scared,” said the man who attended to the victim. “Nobody on this block is going to let their kids go outside unless they’re outside with them, and they’re not going to let them out of their sight. No bikes, no park, because of the bull—-.”

Another neighbor, Olivia, described the problem parents have been facing over the last few years.

“Either you have your kid in the house, or you let them go outside and they join a gang,” Olivia said. “We kept ours in the house.”

For years, Olivia said she has organized the 4600 South Troy Avenue block party. She gathers signatures and files the paperwork. The tradition is one that children look forward to.

She gave instructions to others on the block to pull the permit, if they wanted, but nobody has yet. “It’s too dangerous. I don’t want something to happen,” she said. “I don’t want that on my conscience.”

She and other neighbors call the police on the relatively minor transgressions — suspicious cars, drug sales — but the police seem unresponsive to their calls until something major happens.

Juanita sat on her porch with her husband, an American flag hanging from a flagpole and another on the front door. Her contribution to the block party is coffee, homemade pastries, juice for kids. Last Fourth of July, she rolled out a popcorn machine and hot dog cart.

“I’ve been a community person since I can remember,” she said. She’s considered the block’s grandmother. “The block parties were good because in the winter the neighbors rarely see each other. They were a good time to catch up.”

Relatives of the 25-year-old man that was shot in the 4600 block of South Troy Street, talk on the phone inside the crime scene on June 8, 2017, in the Brighton Park neighborhood.

As officers worked, parents walked their kids home from an elementary school around the corner. Students in Chicago Public Schools khakis and blue polo shirts walked from Columbia Explorers Academy a few blocks away.

A boy lugging a green backpack was warned by two older women on the block: Go inside, lock your doors, stay away from the windows.

“And if I see you in the window,” one woman warned, “I’m going to call your mom.”

More than a dozen kids live on the block, but they all stayed inside when they got home.

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